“GOT SCARED”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1056, 21 August 1930, Page 16

“GOT SCARED”

TRIED TO RETURN SUITCASE LABOURER CONVICTED After James Newald stole a suitcase, he became alarmed and tried to return it. He was dealt with leniently at the Police Court today. Newald, described as a clerk, or labourer, aged 40, was charged with breaking and entering the dwelling of Peter Laurie, at Freeman’s Bay, on August 18, and stealing a suitcase and contents, valued at £4. On the application of Sub-Inspector Shanahan the charge was reduced to one of common theft, accused pleading guilty. At 9 p.m. on August 18, Newald called at Laurie’s house and found nobody in, according to the sub-in-spector. He went inside and picked up a packed portmanteau, which he took outside, and then went back. He was accosted by a boarder, who kept him until the landlady arrived. As she knew he lived in the locality, she let him go, and he departed, taking the portmanteau from where he had hidden it outside. KEPT PORTMANTEAU “According to his story he kept the portmanteau, which contained blankets, for a few days and then put it on a hawker’s van, with a note asking that it be returned to where it was taken from.” Mr. Hunt: Why, the hawker might have been charged with theft. The hawker put it in a nearby store where it was found by the police, said the sub-inspector. Accused: I’ve got a job to go to back at the freezing works. “Well, I’ll give you a chance,” said Mr. Hunt. Accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon within six months.